IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v151y2021ics0301421521000525.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Environmental regulation and haze pollution: Neighbor-companion or neighbor-beggar?

Author

Listed:
  • Zhou, Qian
  • Zhong, Shihu
  • Shi, Tao
  • Zhang, Xiaoling

Abstract

The paper employs the spatial econometric method and in the Yangtze River Delta, constructs unique spatial matrices to analyze the effect of environmental regulation on haze pollution. The effect of formal and informal environmental regulation is also differentiated. The contributions of this paper are: (1) Research perspective: it compares the effects of informal and formal environmental regulations, stresses the effect of environmental regulation on haze pollution, and identifies the specific mechanisms involved; (2) in terms of methodologies, the study employs a spatial self-lag model and constructs an asymmetric logistics matrix; (3) the study investigates the micro-mechanism involved, to reveal the intermediate action of technological innovation and industrial structure; (4) it is shown that the results are robust after using the instrumental variable (promotion pressure of government officials) for environmental regulation. The policy implications are: Environmental regulation in the Yangtze River Delta region still needs to make a trade-off between economic development and environmental pollution, but the good news is that the convergence of environmental regulation can help promote environmental improvement, and the rigorization of environmental regulation can help optimize industrial structure, and talent cultivation is conducive to the formation and strengthening of the neighbor-companion effect of environmental regulation.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhou, Qian & Zhong, Shihu & Shi, Tao & Zhang, Xiaoling, 2021. "Environmental regulation and haze pollution: Neighbor-companion or neighbor-beggar?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:151:y:2021:i:c:s0301421521000525
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2021.112183
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421521000525
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2021.112183?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cai, Xiqian & Lu, Yi & Wu, Mingqin & Yu, Linhui, 2016. "Does environmental regulation drive away inbound foreign direct investment? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 73-85.
    2. Philippe Aghion & Antoine Dechezleprêtre & David Hémous & Ralf Martin & John Van Reenen, 2016. "Carbon Taxes, Path Dependency, and Directed Technical Change: Evidence from the Auto Industry," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 124(1), pages 1-51.
    3. Jana Stoever & John P. Weche, 2018. "Environmental Regulation and Sustainable Competitiveness: Evaluating the Role of Firm-Level Green Investments in the Context of the Porter Hypothesis," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 70(2), pages 429-455, June.
    4. Zeng, Dao-Zhi & Zhao, Laixun, 2009. "Pollution havens and industrial agglomeration," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 141-153, September.
    5. Daniel L. Millimet & Jayjit Roy, 2016. "Empirical Tests of the Pollution Haven Hypothesis When Environmental Regulation is Endogenous," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(4), pages 652-677, June.
    6. Hettige, Hemamala & Huq, Mainul & Pargal, Sheoli & Wheeler, David, 1996. "Determinants of pollution abatement in developing countries: Evidence from South and Southeast Asia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 24(12), pages 1891-1904, December.
    7. Guan, Dabo & Su, Xin & Zhang, Qiang & Peters, Glen P & Lei, Yu & He, Kebin & Liu, Zhu, 2014. "The socioeconomic drivers of China’s primary PM 2.5 emissions," Scholarly Articles 34253797, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
    8. Chen, Zhao & Kahn, Matthew E. & Liu, Yu & Wang, Zhi, 2018. "The consequences of spatially differentiated water pollution regulation in China," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 468-485.
    9. Cole, Matthew A. & Elliott, Robert J.R. & Shimamoto, Kenichi, 2005. "Industrial characteristics, environmental regulations and air pollution: an analysis of the UK manufacturing sector," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 121-143, July.
    10. Pan, Xiongfeng & Ai, Bowei & Li, Changyu & Pan, Xianyou & Yan, Yaobo, 2019. "Dynamic relationship among environmental regulation, technological innovation and energy efficiency based on large scale provincial panel data in China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 428-435.
    11. Tanaka, Shinsuke, 2015. "Environmental regulations on air pollution in China and their impact on infant mortality," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 90-103.
    12. Zoltan J. Acs & Luc Anselin & Attila Varga, 2008. "Patents and Innovation Counts as Measures of Regional Production of New Knowledge," Chapters, in: Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy, chapter 11, pages 135-151, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    13. Adam B. Jaffe & Karen Palmer, 1997. "Environmental Regulation And Innovation: A Panel Data Study," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 79(4), pages 610-619, November.
    14. Naughton, Helen T., 2014. "To shut down or to shift: Multinationals and environmental regulation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 113-117.
    15. Daron Acemoglu & Philippe Aghion & David Hémous, 2014. "The environment and directed technical change in a North–South model," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 30(3), pages 513-530.
    16. He, Guojun & Fan, Maoyong & Zhou, Maigeng, 2016. "The effect of air pollution on mortality in China: Evidence from the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 18-39.
    17. Zhu, Junming & Ruth, Matthias, 2015. "Relocation or reallocation: Impacts of differentiated energy saving regulation on manufacturing industries in China," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 119-133.
    18. Lanjouw, Jean Olson & Mody, Ashoka, 1996. "Innovation and the international diffusion of environmentally responsive technology," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 549-571, June.
    19. Lai, Yu-Bong & Hu, Chia-Hsien, 2008. "Trade agreements, domestic environmental regulation, and transboundary pollution," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 209-228, May.
    20. Shi, Xinzheng & Xu, Zhufeng, 2018. "Environmental regulation and firm exports: Evidence from the eleventh Five-Year Plan in China," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 187-200.
    21. Liang, Xin & Yu, Tao & Hong, Jingke & Shen, Geoffrey Qiping, 2019. "Making incentive policies more effective: An agent-based model for energy-efficiency retrofit in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 177-189.
    22. Erik Hille & Patrick Möbius, 2019. "Environmental Policy, Innovation, and Productivity Growth: Controlling the Effects of Regulation and Endogeneity," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 73(4), pages 1315-1355, August.
    23. Solmaria Halleck Vega & J. Paul Elhorst, 2017. "Regional labour force participation across the European Union: a time–space recursive modelling approach with endogenous regressors," Spatial Economic Analysis, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(2-3), pages 138-160, July.
    24. Gollop, Frank M & Roberts, Mark J, 1983. "Environmental Regulations and Productivity Growth: The Case of Fossil-Fueled Electric Power Generation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 91(4), pages 654-674, August.
    25. Song, Malin & Fisher, Ron & Kwoh, Yusen, 2019. "Technological challenges of green innovation and sustainable resource management with large scale data," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 361-368.
    26. Juan Tang & Shihu Zhong & Guocheng Xiang, 2019. "Environmental Regulation, Directed Technical Change, and Economic Growth: Theoretic Model and Evidence from China," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 42(5-6), pages 519-549, September.
    27. Michael E. Porter & Claas van der Linde, 1995. "Toward a New Conception of the Environment-Competitiveness Relationship," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 9(4), pages 97-118, Fall.
    28. Chen, Jie & Zhou, Qian, 2017. "City size and urban labor productivity in China: New evidence from spatial city-level panel data analysis," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 165-178.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jie Tao & Weidong Cao & Yebing Fang & Yujie Liu & Xueyan Wang & Haipeng Wei, 2022. "Spatiotemporal Differences and Spatial Spillovers of China’s Green Manufacturing under Environmental Regulation," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-20, September.
    2. Ke-Liang Wang & Rui-Rui Zhu & Yun-He Cheng, 2022. "Does the Development of Digital Finance Contribute to Haze Pollution Control? Evidence from China," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-21, April.
    3. Zhaoyang Zhao & Shuning Zhou & Siying Wang & Chong Ye & Tuolei Wu, 2022. "The Impact of Carbon Emissions Trading Pilot Policy on Industrial Structure Upgrading," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-25, August.
    4. Wang, Yi & Wang, Huiping, 2023. "Spatial spillover effect of urban sprawl on total factor energy ecological efficiency: Evidence from 272 cities in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 273(C).
    5. Ye, Fei & Ouyang, You & Li, Yina, 2023. "Digital investment and environmental performance: The mediating roles of production efficiency and green innovation," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 259(C).
    6. Dong, Kangyin & Shahbaz, Muhammad & Zhao, Jun, 2022. "How do pollution fees affect environmental quality in China?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    7. Zhice Cheng & Xinyuan Chen & Huwei Wen, 2022. "How Does Environmental Protection Tax Affect Corporate Environmental Investment? Evidence from Chinese Listed Enterprises," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-22, March.
    8. Xi Zhang & Jiayu Zheng & Ligang Wang, 2022. "Can the Relationship between Atmospheric Environmental Quality and Urban Industrial Structure Adjustment Achieve Green and Sustainable Development in China? A Case of Taiyuan City," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-17, May.
    9. Xueping Wu & Ming Gao, 2021. "Effects of different environmental regulations and their heterogeneity on air pollution control in China," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 60(2), pages 140-166, December.
    10. Liangang Li & Pingyu Zhang & Chengxin Wang, 2022. "What Affects the Economic Resilience of China’s Yellow River Basin Amid Economic Crisis—From the Perspective of Spatial Heterogeneity," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-20, July.
    11. Yanwei Lyu & Jinning Zhang & Fei Yang & Di Wu, 2022. "The “Local Neighborhood” Effect of Environmental Regulation on Green Innovation Efficiency: Evidence from China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-20, August.
    12. Xingwei Li & Jiachi Dai & Xiaowen Zhu & Jinrong He & Jingru Li & Xiang Liu & Yicheng Huang & Qiong Shen, 2022. "What Is the Mechanism of Government Green Development Behavior Considering Multi-Agent Interaction? A Meta-Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-16, July.
    13. Ke Liu & Shiwen Yang & Qian Zhou & Yurong Qiao, 2021. "Spatiotemporal Evolution and Spatial Network Analysis of the Urban Ecological Carrying Capacity in the Yellow River Basin," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(1), pages 1-25, December.
    14. Li, Feiyang & Lin, Ziyue & Huang, Liangxiong & Yang, Caiting, 2022. "Environmental regulation and global value chain division position:Analysis based on global transnational data," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    15. Lai, Aolin & Wang, Qunwei & Cui, Lianbiao, 2022. "Can market segmentation lead to green paradox? Evidence from China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 254(PC).
    16. Jinling Yan & Junfeng Zhao & Xiaodong Yang & Xufeng Su & Hailing Wang & Qiying Ran & Jianliang Shen, 2021. "Does Low-Carbon City Pilot Policy Alleviate Urban Haze Pollution? Empirical Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-20, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Liu, Cenjie & Fang, Jiayu & Xie, Rui, 2021. "Energy policy and corporate financial performance: Evidence from China's 11th five-year plan," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    2. Liu, Wei & Zhao, Zhihui & Wen, Zhao & Cheng, Shixiong, 2022. "Environmental regulation and OFDI: Evidence from Chinese listed firms," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 191-208.
    3. Zhang, Ming & Zhao, Yingxue, 2023. "Does environmental regulation spur innovation? Quasi-natural experiment in China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    4. Huang, Youxing & Xu, Qi & Zhao, Yanping, 2021. "Short-run pain, long-run gain: Desulfurization investment and productivity," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    5. Hille, Erik & Althammer, Wilhelm & Diederich, Henning, 2020. "Environmental regulation and innovation in renewable energy technologies: Does the policy instrument matter?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    6. Lu, Yunguo & Zhang, Lin, 2022. "National mitigation policy and the competitiveness of Chinese firms," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    7. Li, Zhen & Wu, Baijun & Wang, Danyang & Tang, Maogang, 2022. "Government mandatory energy-biased technological progress and enterprises' environmental performance: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment of cleaner production standards in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    8. Hongshan Ai & Xiaoqing Tan & Zhen Xia, 2022. "RETRACTED: The Effects of Environmental Regulations on Medical Expenses: Evidence from China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(13), pages 1, June.
    9. Liu, Donghua & Ren, Shenggang & Li, Wenming, 2022. "SO2 emissions trading and firm exports in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    10. Yang, Qiuyue & Gao, Da & Song, Deyong & Li, Yi, 2021. "Environmental regulation, pollution reduction and green innovation: The case of the Chinese Water Ecological Civilization City Pilot policy," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 45(4).
    11. Xu, Yuan & Wu, Yanrui & Shi, Yongli, 2021. "Emission reduction and foreign direct investment nexus in China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    12. Chakraborty, Pavel & Chakrabarti, Anindya S. & Chatterjee, Chirantan, 2023. "Cross-border environmental regulation and firm labor demand," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    13. Bai, Caiquan & Liu, Hangjuan & Zhang, Rongjie & Feng, Chen, 2023. "Blessing or curse? Market-driven environmental regulation and enterprises' total factor productivity: Evidence from China's carbon market pilots," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    14. Antoine Dechezleprêtre & Misato Sato, 2017. "The Impacts of Environmental Regulations on Competitiveness," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 11(2), pages 183-206.
    15. Zhou, Peng & Song, Frank M. & Huang, Xiaoqi, 2023. "Environmental regulations and firms' green innovations: Transforming pressure into incentives," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    16. Hu, Hui & Qi, Shaozhou & Chen, Yuanzhi, 2023. "Using green technology for a better tomorrow: How enterprises and government utilize the carbon trading system and incentive policies," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    17. Liu, Duan & Yu, Nizhou & Wan, Hong, 2022. "Does water rights trading affect corporate investment? The role of resource allocation and risk mitigation channels," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    18. Ren, Shenggang & Hu, Yucai & Zheng, Jingjing & Wang, Yangjie, 2020. "Emissions trading and firm innovation: Evidence from a natural experiment in China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    19. Stavins, Robert & Jaffe, Adam & Newell, Richard, 2000. "Technological Change and the Environment," Working Paper Series rwp00-002, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    20. Yanyun Li & Faqin Lin & Wenxiao Wang, 2022. "Environmental regulation and inward foreign direct investment: Evidence from the eleventh Five‐Year Plan in China," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(3), pages 684-707, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:151:y:2021:i:c:s0301421521000525. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.